Short life expectancy: Poorest dying nearly 10 years younger than the rich

According to the Imperial College London, the gap between short life expectancy of the richest and poorest sectors of society in England is increasing.

Researchers have also revealed that short life expectancy is showing to be particularly high in women in England, as data shows life expectancy has fallen since 2011, making this a ‘deeply worrying’ trend to occur.

How do you research short life expectancy?

Funded by the Wellcome Trust, the study examined Office for National Statistics data on all deaths recorded in England between 2001 and 2016, this being 7.65 million deaths in total.

The results revealed the life expectancy gap between the most affluent and most disadvantaged sectors of society increased from 6.1 years in 2001 to 7.9 years in 2016 for women, and from 9.0 to 9.7 years in men.

The life expectancy of women in the most deprived communities in 2016 was 79 years, compared to 87 years in the most affluent group. For men, the life expectancy was 74 years among the poorest, compared to 84 years among the richest.

The research also revealed that the life expectancy of women in the poorest sectors of society has dropped by 0.24 years since 2011.

“Deeply worrying indicator of the state of our nation’s health”

Professor Majid Ezzati, senior author of the research from Imperial’s School of Public Health, said: “Falling life expectancy in the poorest communities is a deeply worrying indicator of the state of our nation’s health, and shows that we are leaving the most vulnerable out of the collective gain.

“We currently have a perfect storm of factors that can impact on health, and that are leading to poor people dying younger. Working income has stagnated and benefits have been cut, forcing many working families to use food banks. The price of healthy foods like fresh fruit and vegetables has increased relative to unhealthy, processed food, putting them out of the reach of the poorest.”

He added: “The funding squeeze for health and cuts to local government services since 2010 have also had a significant impact on the most deprived communities, leading to treatable diseases such as cancer being diagnosed too late, or people dying sooner from conditions like dementia.”

So, what are the diseases that lead to short life expectancy?

Although the researchers found that people in the poorest sectors died at a higher rate from all illnesses, a number of diseases showed a particularly stark difference between the rich and poor.

The typical conditions that led to a large loss of longevity in the poor compared to the rich were new-born deaths and children’s diseases, respiratory diseases, heart disease, lung and digestive cancers, and dementia.

In 2016, children under five years old from the poorest sectors of society were 2.5 times more likely to have a short life expectancy than children from affluent families.

“This study suggests the poor in England are dying from diseases that can be prevented and treated,” said Ezzati “greater investment in health and social care in the most deprived areas will help reverse the worrying trends seen in our work. We also need government and industry action to eradicate food insecurity and make healthy food choices more affordable, so that the quality of a family’s diet isn’t dictated by their income.”